Hiroshima’s Lessons for the War on Terror

Canada Free Press ^ | 08/11/14 | Daniel Greenfield

[Sean_Anthony]

Now America faces an enemy whose chief power is hate. The Islamic terrorist has no other real asset except his hate. Unfortunately hate is our weakness

In the summer of ‘45, the United States concluded a war that had come to be seen by some as unwinnable after the carnage at Iwo Jima with a bang.

On August 6th, the bomb fell on Hiroshima. And then on the 9th, it was Nagasaki’s turn. Six days later, Japan, which had been preparing to fight to the last man, surrendered.

For generations of liberals those two names would come to represent the horror of America’s war machine when they actually saved countless American and Japanese lives.

The two bombs stand in stark contrast to our endless nation-building exercises in which nothing is ever finished until we give up. Instead Truman cut the Gordian Knot and avoided a long campaign that would have depopulated Japan and destroyed the lives of a generation of American soldiers.

[paterfamilias]

Excellent article. Thank you for posting it.

[paterfamilias]

Excellent article. Thank you for posting it.

[Wolfie]

The War on Terror is indeed fundamentally different from WWII, in that it must be sacrifice-free for 99% of Americans, or it won’t be fought at all.

[Arm_Bears]

Leftists hate a strong and victorious United States.

[chajin]

The War on Terror is indeed fundamentally different from WWII, in that it must be sacrifice-free for 99% of Americans, or it won’t be fought at all.

Its fundamental difference is that in WWII the public was allowed to hate the "dirty Japs" and "Krauts," and the famous quote from Adm. Halsey, "KILL JAPS! KILL JAPS! KILL MORE JAPS! You will help to kill the yellow bastards if you do your job well," was considered a rallying cry. There was always the in-the-future desire to somehow morph Japan into a peace-loving nation (cf. Captain Cassidy's "skates" monologue in the 1943 movie Destination Tokyo), but in the meantime, the work at hand was to beat back and ultimately conquer Imperial Japan, by any means necessary. When we come to the same conclusion about militant Islamists, we will win, and the world will be a much better place.

[mosaicwolf]

Someone told me the Hajj would be an excellent target rich environment.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

I’m reading the book “Unbroken” about American POW Louis Zamperini’s experience as a POW in Japan... I find myself seething at the Japanese: their soldiers, POW officers, the Japanese public. I’m amazed that America befriended them so quickly after the war given the experience of Zamperini and his fellow POWs.

This article is correct: America shouldn’t be pulling punches in the war with Islamic terrorists. Drop the bomb.

[servo1969]

The Armed Forces exist to kill people and break things. That is their purpose.

Our current administration treats the military like college with uniforms and guns.

[sickoflibs]

RE:”The War on Terror is indeed fundamentally different from WWII, in that it must be sacrifice-free for 99% of Americans, or it won’t be fought at all.’

Its not as different as you are thinking though.

Americans up till Dec 1941 were extremely isolationist and would have behaved similarly if Roosevelt declared war in say 1939, it was Pearl Harbor attack that changed Americans views.

Sure, we were attacked 9/11 by Al-Qaeda then later invaded Iraq, but if Truman had invaded Eastern Europe in 1945 starting a ground war with the USSR after Germany's surrendered it would have been as unpopular as Iraq turned out to be in 2006.

Now dropping those two Nukes on Japan was the cleanest and most popular option from the US standpoint.